Casino Du Golfe (Cavalaire)

A small seaside town in the south of France, Cavalaire-sur-Mer will stay in my memory forever. During 2010 we did not loose even once in the local casino.

Casino du Golfe – one of hundreds of casinos spread all over the country. As a rule, management of these casinos only understand a few things in the gambling business and rely on their intuition. I understand their shock when two Russians were playing every day and taking out significant amounts of money. Perhaps our wins led to a significant loss that month! I remember the casino was technologically equipped – we were playing French poker against the croupier with a shuffle machine. These machines guarantee the honesty of the game but at some moment management doubted their reliability and had the croupier shuffle the deck manually. This slowed down our game a little bit, but we continued to win. These people believed in luck, which showed their incompetence. Although, they did not show it to us, they were continuing to politely smile to us. And we were winning.

When the managers of the Casino du Golfe returned to using the shuffle machine, nothing changed. One time my friend got a combination Flash Street for a maximum payout but the dealer showed “No game” and the combination was not paid. My friend showed the cards to the casino workers. I think they were disappointed, not because dealer did not win but because if we would continue to play the casino would have to close.

There was also a Texas Poker table in the Casino du Golfe, but it was not a busy season on the Azure coast and the table was played on rarely. I played only one or two times and took many small denominations chips for my collection (in other games the smaller denomination chips were not used). Of course, due to the win we liked the town Cavalaire-sur-Mer with its deserted streets, quiet without many cars and the occasional elderly French couple. We were not once barked at by dogs when we were walking alongside the beach to the casino and back to the hotel.

But we had business in Nice and we left Cavalaire-sur-Mer after one week. We decided to come here again by all means.

But reality was more hostile than we thought.

Another time when my friend was on the north of France in the famous historical Casino de Trouville, management of the gambling establishment was looking at him as an enemy. My friend was losing, but they were watching every payment. Ultimately, they blacklisted him. Why? The workers of the casino confessed that management of the Casino du Golfe had put us on a special list marked as “sharpers”. These people were trying to justify themselves before their superiors and blamed us for cardsharping without any basis. Not all casinos in France listened to this impudent lie and every time when I visit this beautiful country I find a place to play my favorite games. But I will never come back to Cavalaire-sur-Mer!

Here is an example of a chip used at Casino du Golfe in Cavalaire-sur-Mer:
Casino du Golfe in Cavalaire-sur-Mer


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Casino Sochi

Casino Sochi has opened in the mountainous region Gorki-Gorod, in close proximity to Sochi city. The casino is located in the territory designated as a ‘gambling zone’, “Krasnaya Polyana”. The grand opening of the complex occurred on January 5th, 2017. This is the largest and most expensive casino in Russia. I visited it in July 2018. I enjoyed the mountain air, picturesque scenery and the relaxed atmosphere of the region. Naturally, I found Casino Sochi very impressive.

In terms of its appearance, Casino Sochi met my expectations of an classical casino. It resembles the likes of casinos in Monte-Carlo (Monaco), San-Remo (Italy) and Deauville (France).

Beyond visiting Casino Sochi, I also had the pleasure to take a few photos of the gambling floor (with the permission of the casino’s administration). I talked to the casino’s representatives, visited VIP rooms and even got to see a concert with famous Russian pop stars. In the end, I spent several days at the casino and obtained a lot of information for journalistic purposes in the process.

The equipment used at Casino Sochi is predominantly manufactured by the Italian company Abbiati. The same goes for the chips. Whilst I am not generally fond of Abbiati chips (preferring BG and Matsui instead), in the present case, the Italians clearly tried their best to produce some really good chips. Therefore, the trip was successful with regards to the chips as well! Here is an example of a chip used at Casino Sochi:
Casino Sochi


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Crown casino Moscow

Casino Crown Moscow

The Crown casino was opened on September 1, 1998 in Moscow on Novyy Arbat Street. Over there I was introduced to an interesting game known as Texas Holdem Poker. There I played the first poker tournaments. As I remember now, on Sundays you could play free tournaments – if you brought a friend with you, who was a beginner. Also, the Crown casino was famous for its restaurant, which had very cheap prices for quality food.

I remember the funny incident that happened in the Crown casino in Moscow: I met there with my friends, professional gamblers. We sat and drank alcohol for a long time. Then, we decided to play blackjack. But, the casino management had severe paranoia about blackjack players. After a while, the manager ran up to the table and had forbidden playing both of my friends as they were the professional players! I did not know how to play this game, I did not know the basic strategy! But, along with my friends I got banned for playing blackjack. I got blacklisted for the first time in my life!

Advert of Casino Crown Moscow

The Crown casino closed on June 30, 2009. It was one of the best casinos in Moscow. The chips from this casino form the basis of my collection.

One of several chips from this casino:
Crown Casino


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